Unexpected Stay in DOHA

Prepations were over, all the tickets needed to be booked in advance were done. The train tickets from Edinburgh to Liverpool, and then from Liverpool to London were all booked. Fianlly 14th Aprilcame and each one of us with our own happiness headed to the airport. Little one(Santosh) is always happy to fly in a plane as they have a small tv which has some cartoon and a remote which can be controled all by himself is the highlight of the whole thing. Elder one (Harish) is equally excited to go to London as he had been asking to go there for long. Hubby excited to visit Liverpool and his dream coming true. He wanted to watch a football match there but there was no match being played during our visit. Am sure this dream will come true someday. Me excited to visit London and ofcourse to get sometime off my routine is always fun.

Our flight was from Nairobi to Doha and from Doha to Edinburgh reaching on 15th afternoon, with 45 mins only to transit in Doha. With the excitement within we didn’t even realise that the flight in nairobi was delayed atleast 30 to 40 minutes. We landed in Doha early morning at 6.40 am and to our dismay we couldn’t catch our flight to Edinburgh which was at 7.05 am. All other flights to U.K left the same time and so we had to wait in Doha for a day. This was a disappointing moment, we all felt a bit sad. Qatar airways gave us a 5 star hotel on full board. So we went to the hotel in a shuttle and then rested for a while. There was awesome flower arrangements at the entrance. If you would have been following me in Instagram then you would know that am a great fan of flowers and I go crazy and start clicking them. That’s what happened here also.

The food was awesome and couldn’t stop from clicking the small bottles of sauce, mayonnaise, mutard and tobasco. They look so cute right ??? As we had to spend a day in Doha we decided to make this an oppurtunity to go around Doha. We got a tour booked with the hotel guys, in a car for three hours to take us to 6 important places.

Museum of Islamic Art – This museum is built by reclaiming the land in the lagoon area, the driver cum guide told us this info. It’s a beautiful structure with garden and there is water around the museum building and that was a beautiful view to see.
View of the cafe from second floor.

As soon as you enter, the main thing that falls into our attraction is the architecture of the building. The staircase is curved and reaches the first floor from both the sides. It’s a lovely architecture to be awed.

The view of the staricase. Pic Courtesy – From the museum website.

The exhibits are from various parts of the world and mainly portrays the islamic history. We spent 45 mins going around the museum and then left to go to the next destination.

Souq Waqif – The Souq is marketplace that has lot of small shops which sells Spices, Nuts and Traditional items. It also has lot of cafe’s with Shisha and a lot of restaurants to enjoy a meal. Another interesting thing we enjoyed was the pet shops, there were lot of aimals for sale. Like the Parrots, Love birds, Rabbits, Squirrels, Puppies, dogs and many more.

Doha Corniche – It is the waterfront promenade, with walkways for several kilometers along the Doha Bay. If we stand on the corniche and face the buildings it has a line of sky scrappers and is a place to click some pictures.

Line up of sky scrappers from the corniche.

The pearl Qatar – It is an artificial island reclaimed in the lagoon area of the Qatar. The best part is that this area has lot of residential units and malls and dinig area. It has even private yatches and they are moored in the back waters and it is a site to see. Very beautiful and is a new developement with all facilities in that area. I read that this area was named The Pearl Qatar as this was the spot before where they did pearl diving.

The yatches anchored to the back waters.

Little Venice Qatar – This is a part of the Pearl Qatar Establishment and it looks and feels like little Venice. The apartment buildings are all coloured in different colours overlooking the Canals and Piazza’s. The real Venice has narrow canals but this developement has wider canals and looks beautiful.

The Little Venice.

Katara Cultural Village – Skipped as the three hours time limit had ended and the traffic became a bit heavy. Reached the hotel by 7pm and then had dinner. Finally with the relief of taking the flight to Edinburgh the next day, we all slept early. Got up and took the shuttle and reached airport with the same excitement as the day before.

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40 thoughts on “Unexpected Stay in DOHA”

Great pictures Meena. Your love of food is evident in pictures of bottles of mayonnaise!!
However much I try, I never liked these glitzy modern Skyline of middle East. I feel it’s all imported with no local flavour or uniqueness. Old Souq definitely is something local.

Lovely photos, I actually liked the architecture, so many different styles and everything so clean. I felt sorry for the birds and animals though, I don’t like to see them squashed in cages like that. It was a shame that you missed your flight but your unexpected visit broke up the travelling time amd you had an unexpected adventure. I hope your husband fulfils his dream of seeing Liverpool play one day 😊

I did actually…but I kept myself very busy as otherwise I would go crazy. I made sure to enjoy the weather and went to the beach every weekend for snorkeling or paddling. I guess I got used to it. Then I moved to Dubai and realized how much nicer that was. But both places has their good and bad sides.